Education department: Teachers unions ‘spreading lies’ and ‘causing fear’ about library books
This story has been updated to include responses from teachers’ unions.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – The Florida Department of Education said teachers’ unions are scaring teachers after confusion erupted regarding a current law where adults can face a third-degree felony for providing minors with sexual material.
Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said there are “false narratives” circulating after some Florida school libraries removed books from the shelves following new training material for media specialists.
“It’s unfortunate that certain media continue to spread lies and scare teachers for no reason,” Diaz said.
Florida lawmakers passed HB 1467 in mid-2022, which required media specialists go through approved training to brush up on Florida law before approving books for classrooms and libraries. The training materials highlight Florida laws, including one where it is a third-degree felony for “any adult” to distribute pornographic materials to minors.
The training materials were officially approved by the Board of Education in January. However, a spokesperson for the department said because the bill went into effect on July 1, schools should have been working on implementing the new law.
“Bottom line: school districts had over seven months to adhere to the requirements within the bill,” department communications director Alex Lanfranconi said.
He noted that the Florida law making it a felony for any adult to provide minors with obscene material is not new and is not specific to library media materials.
“Now – all of a sudden – we are seeing teachers’ unions pretending to be confused about HB 1467, spreading lies and causing fear in classrooms. The most egregious lie is that teachers can face a felony simply for providing a disallowed book. This is blatantly untrue,” Lanfranconi said.
“Anyone conflating this serious criminal offense with an educator simply providing students a benign book is not telling the truth. The unions know this, but since their goal is to sow confusion, they continue to mislead the public.”
In January, teachers in Duval County and Manatee County began clearing their bookshelves out of confusion, with the video clips of cleared shelves going viral. News stories highlighted teachers’ union presidents and school leaders telling teachers to hide their books to avoid felony charges.
“We’re not talking about a slap on the hand. We’re not talking about being pulled out of your classroom. We’re talking a third-degree felony. And if you love your favorite book and it’s not on that approved list, I would remove it from the shelf and take it out of that classroom because no one needs to subject themselves to a possibility of a third-degree felony,” Terrie Brady, president of Duval teachers’ union, said.
Brady told Florida’s Voice that she is aware that the felony is only related to pornography. She said in the district, teachers were given an approved list of books and were asked to go through their personal libraries in the room. She said the union never instructed all the shelves be cleared and said they tried to be very clear about the felony only being attached to pornography.
“We also instructed teachers that if they felt uneasy about leaving books in their classroom either in a box or on the shelf cupboard to take those specific books home, temporary until the list could either be amended and have additional books added to it or taken off,” Brady said.
The education department highlighted a story headlined “Hide your books to avoid felony charges, Fla. schools tell teachers” where Manatee Education Association President Pat Barber noted that she received questions from “distressed” educators who are afraid of receiving a third-degree felony. In another story, Barber talked about teachers possibly receiving a felony.
“They’ve criminalized providing a book when there really is just a vague definition of what books are not appropriate,” Barber said.
Florida’s Voice reached out to Barber for a comment.
“Protecting the educators and students in the Manatee County schools is my top priority. When the Florida Department of Education issues guidance that cites the felony risk of providing certain materials to children, it is my duty to notify the teachers I represent,” Barber said.
In response to the viral clips and news stories, Manatee County School District School Board Chair Chad Choate released a strong statement to “set the record straight.” He called the bare shelves a “gross exaggeration” of state law.
“We aren’t burning books or banning classroom libraries here in Manatee County. There should be no bare shelves where books once were- and to say anything to the contrary is a flat out lie, a gross exaggeration of state law and the opposite of guidance this school board has given to the district,” Choate said.
“No teachers can face criminal penalties for giving a student a book unless it’s pornographic or sexually explicit in nature.”
For example, the training defines pornography as “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement.” It also explains what material adults are not allowed to distribute to minors on school property, which could result in a felony charge.
• Any picture…or visual representation of a person or a
Materials Prohibited by Section 847.012, F.S.
portion of a human body which depicts nudity or sexual
conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or
sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors.
• Any book, pamphlet, magazine [or] printed matter…that
contains…explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or
narrative accounts of sexual excitement, or sexual
conduct and that is harmful to minors.
“To protect librarians and media specialists, it must be clear that a book depicting nudity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement does not meet the tenets of ‘Harmful to minors’ (s. 847.001, F.S.), which are:
- Predominantly appeal to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest;
- Be patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and
- Taken as a whole the material is without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
